1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus which is typified by a printer, a facsimile, or a copier, and which includes a recording execution unit having a recording head, a U-shaped reversal path that guides a first recording material such as recording sheet to the recording execution unit while reversing the recording material in a U shape, and a reciprocating movement path that reciprocates a holding tray mounting thereon a second recording material such as an optical disk to be guided to the recording execution unit.
2. Related Art
An ink jet printer will be described as an example of a recording apparatus. Among ink jet printers, there is known a printer having a structure capable of selectively executing a recording operation on both a soft recording material without self-supporting properties such as paper or film and a hard recording material having self-supporting properties such as an optical disk (e.g., CD-R and DVD-R) (reference should be made to, for example, JP-A-2005-059584). The optical disk is transported in a state of being set on a special holding tray.
Moreover, among the ink jet printers, there is known a printer having a U-shaped reversal structure in which a number of sheets are accommodated in a feed cassette in a stacked state and are transported to the front side while being reversed in a U-shaped reversal path which is provided in a rear interior space of a printer body. In the printer having the U-shaped reversal structure, recording heads are arranged in the U-shaped reversal path so that a recording operation is executed on the sheet being transported and reversed in a U shaped state.
However, in the former printer (disclosed in JP-A-2005-059584, for example), since a transport path of the soft recording material and a transport path of the hard recording material are configured to be independent from each other, the printer is likely to become bulky. Particularly, such a problem becomes prominent in a structure that incorporates the holding tray in the printer body.
On the other hand, the latter printer having the U-shaped reversal structure has a structure in which a recording operation is executed on a sheet being transported and reversed in the U-shaped state. In a state where the sheet is reversed in a U-shape, since a backward tension or the like is applied thereto in response to the reversion and curving thereof, a transport load increases, making it difficult to perform highly accurate recording and thus degrading the recording quality.